Let’s check in on our current industry’s hottest trend, blockchain. The metaverse? NFTs? No, sorry, I’ll get it eventually.

These were some of the stories I’ve read this month.

Factually

I found this site (Wayback Machine link) while doing research into another post. Under a headline they included the following:

Disclaimer: Factually can make mistakes. Please verify important information or breaking news. Learn more.

I clicked learn more:

Factually is an AI-powered research tool/fact-checker. It searches the web for users’ queries and provides a balanced, neutral overview of existing coverage, analysing different angles and agendas

The name is “factually”, but facts aren’t guaranteed. Amazing!

I suspect a slopgineer would claim that human writers are no guarantee of facts either. You know you have a winning pitch when you say “use our trusted service, we’re no worse than a person!” I’d ask what the point is, but then I remember it’s money. Carry on.

In defence of “AI”

Friend of the blog Michał Sapka defends AI in a post exploring the valuable uses of machine learning and AI that isn’t gen-“AI”.

I agree, and share in his frustration. But defending “AI” is now untenable. We’ve lost that term to marketers, grifters, and the general public. I was a part of the group that tried (valiantly, I might add) to preserve the term “crypto”. It now means speculative blockchain shenanigans, not cryptography.

Where do we go from here? Maybe we go back to describing useful tools as ML, though machine learning is also laden with a lot of hot air and empty promises. Remember when Big Data and ML on large data lakes were pitched as saving all the world’s problems? Data that was indiscriminately collected, and with dubious ethics and legality? Huh, I’m sensing a pattern here.

“AI” is magic

Jamie Zawinski shared a great post of his from three years ago.

This is why “AI” is always bullshit: once you understand it, it’s not AI any more, it’s something else.

“Your site was written by an AI”

Another friend of the blog Stefano Marinelli had the charge put forward that he writes his blog with “AI”:

I write technical articles on my blog. AIs show up in large numbers to read them, crawl them, learn from them. Time passes. I publish a new post.

And right on schedule, someone comments: “This was clearly written by an AI”.

It’s a bit silly if you take the time to read what he posted. He has his own writing style and communicates novel ideas. But then I suspect most people aren’t reading his posts, they’re using “summarising” tools (that only shorten, but I won’t get started again).

He takes the accusation in his stride; an attitude I strive to attain. I’ve only been accused of using AI to write this blog twice, but it’s among the worst (if still lazy) insults I’ve ever received. “That was a great meal you cooked for us, you must have got takeaway!”

☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎

That’s it for now. Have I said how much I’m looking forward to not having to think about this stuff again? Now that would be an Xmas present!